Gettin' Crackin'

For many people--and I am one of them--in recent years the Christmas season has been a time of sadness rather than joy.  Events in our lives have conspired to make it a time of tears (and compensation eating) and hopelessness concerning our ability to change our circumstances.   One of the ways that I dealt with Christmas this year was to stay busy--because that way you have less time to focus on things you can't change--and, hopefully accomplish something constructive.  Less moping and more hoping.  I did a LOT of sewing.  And creating something out of nothing made things a bit better each time I sat down at the machine.
When we moved back to the mountains of North Carolina, I got rid of all of my scraps--except the batiks.  You can see the big basket of them in the first picture.  I sifted through all of the scraps

looking for purples and creams, having decided to make a log cabin quilt.  I ironed and cut, cut and ironed, cutting strips 1 1/14" wide and then started piecing.  As the blocks came together, I really enjoyed seeing the way the colors worked together ( and as I didn't have enough cream-colored fabrics and added other light-toned ones that were in the basket).

There were no rules for the piecing.  I didn't paper piece to assure accuracy--I didn't even cut the correct sizes for the strips.  I just sewed and trimmed off the ends.  I did press the omponentsof the blocks as I went along, but I didn't press the rows of blocks until they were all sewn together.  It wasn't a show quilt--I didn't spend a lot of time on the quilting.  I just sewed and sewed and listened to Books on CDs.  It was soothing and satisfying.

And here you can see the finished quilt.  The only "new" fabric I used was for the border.  What am I going to do with it?  I don't know.  This time it was definitely the journey, not the destination.
And along the way this year, I learned a pretty good lesson.  We truly can make our own happiness.  This quilt made me happy--as did several other things during the season.  We had friends for dinner on Christmas and it was a joy-filled time .  After Christmas a friend came for several days and, together, we made a quilt for another friend.  It brought us both a sense of deep satisfaction to do something for someone else.  We also went to a movie, played cards and shopped for  yarn in a wonderful knit shop.
So. . .Was this Christmas what I would have wished for in my perfect world?  Definitely not.  However, it was pretty darn good and, for that, I am thankful.
My resolution for the New Year?  Focus, focus, focus on the things that are good.  Practice gratitude and be thankful for the people that are in my life.
May your year be filled with more blessings than you can imagine.

The Unveiling

The Asheville Quilt Guild held its annual Christmas dinner on Tuesday night and it was really nice.  The location  was beautiful (although the parking was sparse), the food was better than most and the guild group that put it on did a great job.
For me, it was the occasion for the unveiling of the Opportunity Quilt for the 2013 quilt show.  When I was asked to come up with the quilt for next year, I was the victim of not being able to say, "no."  However, it was one of those things in life that definitely turns lemons into lemonade.  While I was stewing within myself for being a gutless wonder, a fellow guild member approached me to offer the assistance of her art group for the project.  (I wonder if she heard my big sigh of relief?)  This has been a difficult year in so many ways and. all of a sudden, there was a lightness that wasn't there before.
To make a long story short, the Out-Of-The-Boxers stepped up to the plate in a BIG way.  I provided the basic form for the quilt and the idea (all things Western North Carolina) and they jumped in with additional content and willing hands.  It truly was a group project and much better for it.  For me personally, it was major.  At the end, they invited me to join the group and I feel that my feet have landed on some pretty solid ground after wobbling around looking for a place to share my quilting life. (Right now, I'm drinking a BIG glass of lemonade!)
The name of our quilt is Delectable Mountains and the tickets will be on sale very soon.  A member of our guild, Noreen Goard did the longarm quilting and she took particular pains to choose motifs that also reflected Western North Carolina flora and fauna.
An additional note about the Christmas dinner:  The Ammons Sisters put on a program in which one sister told stories of growing up in the mountains with little or no material possessions and her sister drew the stories has she told them.  I really loved listening to the stories.  For some reason, I have always connected with the spirit of these mountains that I now call home and stories told by people who have been here for generations give depth and breadth to the experience.  It made me think about how stories impact our lives.  Years ago, when we lived in Saluda, we visited an abandoned stone bridge--called Poinsett Bridge--in the Greenville Water Shed.  It was still mostly there and had a keystone type of construction.  At one time, it was a route from Greenville, SC to Asheville, NC.
Not too long after we visited that bridge, I came across a book of short stories by Robert Morgan called The Mountains Won't Remember Us.  In that book was a story about the building of the Poinsett Bridge which focused on the character of one of the stonemasons.  It vividly portrayed what his life must have been like in those hard-scrapple days of mountain living.  No, he probably wasn't a real person; however, it forever changed my perspective of that bridge.  It no longer was just a beautiful artifact but, rather, was a real bridge built by real people who lived a life of scarcity and brutally hard work.   Stories can bring us as much truth as history books--just in a different way.  Precise facts don't always matter if these stories lead us to a new appreciation of the people who came before.
Sometimes it makes me wonder who will share OUR stories with future generations.

"Air- Conditioned" Scarf

As some of you might remember from an earlier blog, I bought yarn at the huge Fiber Fair a while back to make a scarf that was displayed in the booth.  My husband's comment was something about how is a scarf with a lot of holes in it going to keep your neck warm.  Well . . .what did THAT have to do with anything?  I liked the yarn and I liked the scarf.  Nothing else really mattered.
Of course, the scarf will keep me warm though.  There's plenty there to do the job.  It was a lot of fun to knit because I could hardly wait to see how the next color gradation was going to look.  The only drawback was that I have to keep binding off 10 stitches--which meant I had to count them--uninterrupted.  That can put quite a damper  on conversation.
So, it's finished and the socks are well on their way to completion.  I did cheat a little with the socks and bought some less expensive yarn for my first pair before I use the "good stuff" I bought at the fair.
For those of you interested in this yarn it is by Kauni (www.kauni.com).

Let There Be Peace On Earth--And Let It Begin With Each Of Us

The day after Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law, niece and I went to a craft/gift show in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I used to be a production potter and went to many craft shows throughout the years and, as a result, haven't been to many of them in recent times.  This year, it was the choice of sitting around all day, going to the mall or the craft show.  And I'm very glad we made the choice we did.
Why?  Well, for several reasons.  First of all, it's kind of fun--if you go at a time when the crowds aren't so great i.e. at the very beginning of the day or at the end of the day.  The other thing is to head to the left as you enter because most people go to the right.  We followed both of these rules and it was very pleasant until we got just about to the end of our time there and hit all of the people turning to the right two hours after the show had opened.
Anyway, another very good reason to go to a craft show is that you are pretty much guaranteed to encounter products made in America.  AND, if you're lucky and friendly, you'll get the back story behind the individual crafts that you encounter.  (In case you're wondering at this point what the back story is on the quilt at the top, I'll get to it pretty soon)
I used to be a potter--as I said--and as such, I always look at pots when I'm in a gallery or craft show.  These days, I'm pretty horrified at the prices (and am perhaps jealous that my prices never got that high!).  There were several potters at the show and, I'll have to say, all of there prices were more reasonable than most BUT a lower price doesn't necessarily mean a desirable pot.  But then I came to a booth where the pots just drew me in.  I picked up a mug, the price was good and, more importantly, it felt good in the hand.  I was sold.  Now, one of the benefits of buying at a craft show is that you meet the maker and what he or she says becomes part of the vessel that you purchase.  And what a nice young man--I think more or less just getting started and very enthusiastic about making pots. (He also showed me how to use The Square to charge purchases).  So now, my morning cup of coffee is more than just a cup of coffee--I'm back at that show and thinking about the back story.
I also bought a small hand-carved gourd that is so beautiful.  The young man in that booth told me that he was from Peru and that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all carved gourds.  Another back story.
Now to the quilt above.  While we were walking the show, my sister-in-law spied a quilt hanging up that was made from a Christmas panel--nothing fancy--nothing to mark the maker as a quilter.  Just a product.  I couldn't help myself.  I asked her why she would want to hang that on her wall at Christmas when there was someone who could make her a REAL quilt (me and my big mouth).  Well, she allowed as how the argument had some validity.  And so, I was committed to the project.  I had previously purchased the pattern Peace by Paris Bottman after seeing a finished sample at a quilt show. So it seemed that it might be a good time to make it. Now, it's finished and ready to mail.
And, hopefully, my sister-in-law will think about the back story when she hangs it on the wall--the back story of going to a craft show with her daughter and sister-in-law on the day after Thanksgiving--a day when she saw a lot of wonderful things made in America by real people with faces that gave depth and meaning to the things she purchased.  And, hopefully, she will like the quilt that offers the prayer for peace in our time.

Rose-Colored Glasses

I got up early yesterday morning and went about doing the things I needed to do before we left town for Thanksgiving. As I passed by the window in the dining room, I felt an unusual light.  I looked up and saw this beautiful sky.  But the really unusual thing was the rosey glow that was all around.  It was the softest, most gentle feeling.  I raced for my camera to capture as much of it while I could.  And then I went outside and the entire 360 degrees of the sky was Carolina blue and rose.  I have never experienced such a thing before and it a moment of bliss.  (Of course, maybe if I got up earlier more often I would perhaps have more moments of bliss!). Anyway, I am grateful for this particular moment.
And I'm also glad that my nephew helped me to figure out how to post this from my iPad--which was not the easiest thing in the world.  One more step in my journey to computer savvy.  But how come they keep moving the goal post?

Just Coastin' Along

 When I was at a friend's house last week, she showed me some small bowls and coasters that she had made with Jelly Rolls and clothesline cord.  A while back I made a  clothesline project that was huge and it kind of burned me out on the technique.  After seeing her method, I became re-engaged in the process and decided to give it another try.
To begin with, I didn't use a Jelly Roll (mainly because I didn't have one).  Instead, I used some fat quarters that I DID have.  The method I had used before involved sewing the jelly roll fabrics together into a very long strip, pressing them as if you were going to make them into a bias tape and then enclosing the clothesline within the strip and sewing through the entire thing--all the way down

with a straight stitch (which was mighty difficult to keep straight with all of those layers).  The result of this was that you had more bulk than you needed and the finished piece was somewhat floppy.
This is how my friend did it:
She cut her 2 1/2" Jelly Roll strips into 1 1/4" strips (so you'd get twice the length).  She then sewed the pieces into a long strip.  At this point, she wrapped the finished strip around the clothesline and--with a cording foot--sewed down the entire length, encasing the clothesline..  She previously moved the needle to the right so that it wouldn't sew into the clothesline itself. 

After this was finished, she trimmed the extra fabric away, leaving less that a 1/16" edge from the stitching.  She was then ready to start her finished shape which she formed using a zig-zag stitch.  This method really appealed to me and I've been having fun making the coasters pictured above.
The clothesline I used was 100 feet long and was 3/16" thick.  It was composed of a cotton outer shell that was reinforced with a poly core.  If you don't have a cording foot to sew the fabric over the clothesline, you can use a zipper foot and I used cotton thread.  I also used an open-toed foot to do the zig-zag stitching--which allows you to see what you are doing.  It took almost the entire
roll to make 16 coasters.

The pieces that I have made so far have ended up quite firm and I've been quite pleased with the result.  Give it a try and see what  you think.

It's A Sweet Trip

Do you ever make quilts just BECAUSE . . .in this case, just because the idea came and you think it would be a fun thing to do?
I spent the night with a friend in Raleigh and while I was there, she told the story of Necco Wafers in her life.  As it turns out, when she's on the way to a quilting event, she takes a roll of Necco Wafers and s-l-o-w-l-y enjoys them--one at a time.  And, unlike it would me, the roll lasts her the entire trip.
A few years ago, she bought her usual roll of Necco Wafers and was not happy when she opened them and ate her first one.  SOMEONE had changed them.  They no longer either looked the same or tasted the same.  She called the company to complain and asked why oh why they had messed with a good thing.  Their response was that now they were more healthy (Candy healthy?  That's not really the point, is it?) and that they were now using natural flavors and dyes.
Well, my friend wasn't the only person who complained.  The sales of Necco Wafers dropped by 35% and while the company wasn't particularly interested in customer satisfaction, they WERE interested in the bottom line.  So .  . . now my friend can toodle on down the road with taste satisfaction in every mile!  And I just HAD to put that into a quilt.
The takeaway:  If you're dissatisfied with a product, service, political decision, etc, make your voice heard.  If enough of us speak up--who knows--the world just may be a better place.